Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate 10 minutes to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the Clerk to set the clock accordingly. Senator Scullion.

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the documents to senators, not just for the clear understanding they provide of what needs to be done to address this disadvantage in First Australian communities but because it gets beyond a gap-focus and a deficit-mindset, and tells the proud stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievements. It is a catalogue of pride in country, pride in community, and pride in work and family. It shows how pride and cultural authority is driving change across the country.

It describes how we as a government have learnt the lessons of history and culture and are working with leaders and communities, and within and alongside culture. That is why I am adamant that Indigenous Advancement Strategy services should be delivered by Indigenous organisations and service providers that deeply understand that culture.

For nearly a decade we have been making progress against closing the gap targets. Last night, the Prime Minister and I hosted a function for Indigenous professionals, including the first Aboriginal surgeon and his sister, the first Australian obstetrician, the first person of Indigenous heritage to represent Australia as an ambassador in our diplomatic corp. Over the past 50 years, as the Prime Minister highlighted earlier in his statement to the House, there have been standout people who raised community expectations and pride. There have been many quiet, stalwart achievers who have contributed to their communities by changing one person's life at a time.

Being a proud Territorian, I am pleased many are from the Northern Territory—people such as Andrea Mason, Northern Territory Australian of the Year. There has been strong and wide advocacy that has changed attitudes and changed laws—Neville Bonner and Eddie Mabo, and the pioneers of the freedom rides, to name a few. I can describe the progress in the lives of Indigenous communities in my own stories and interactions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

There are people like Regan Hart, who was a ranger at Kalpowar, Queensland, and who completed her training as an Indigenous compliance officer with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority; and Rick Hanlon, at AFL Cape York House, who was just awarded an Order of Australia for his work supporting students living away from home.

People's personal stories are community stories too, and the stories I see when I am out in community. Sadly, the reality remains that the majority of people working in communities are non-Indigenous—the teachers, the nurses, the police, the local chippie or electrician. There has been some change on this front, although the pace of change has not been as fast as many of us would like. There are educated and qualified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are providing leadership in the communities, but they could be doing these jobs. I will not stop pushing until most if not all of the people working in remote Indigenous communities are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from those communities.

There is always the temptation, when talking about this report, to talk about deficits and gaps, because that is what the Closing the Gap targets show. But that is not the whole story—telling the whole story would mean including the 60 First Australians who are getting a job every day. It would mean including the work our remote staff—the so-called yellow shirts—are doing to help 14,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children get to school every day. It would mean including the $284 million in contracts Indigenous businesses won in 2015-16 as a result of their efforts and our procurement policy. Up from just $6.2 million in 2012-13, it is an extraordinary shift in Commonwealth purchasing and a real reflection of the quality of Indigenous businesses.

What we always have to keep in mind is that closing the gap is not about ethnicity; it is about poverty. The gaps in life outcomes do not stem from being an Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander person but from the fact that those people are living in poverty and suffering all of the consequential social outcomes. Take the target to close the life-expectancy gap by 2031. While we have seen ongoing improvements in life expectancy for the whole Australian population, there has been a gradual improvement for the Indigenous population; the current rate of progress is just slightly improving rather than closing the gap. Let us be frank: this target was ambitious and unrealistic in such a short time frame. Equivalent increases in life expectancy for the broader Australian population have taken between 70 and 90 years to achieve, instead of the 20-year target that we set for ourselves. We need to recognise the progress that has been made and the positive stories that are there.

The attendance rate for Indigenous students is 83.4 per cent, which means the majority of Indigenous students are attending school at a rate close to non-Indigenous students. We know that, if we can get kids to pre-school, getting them to go on to school is easier. Some jurisdictions have 100 per cent enrolment rates for Indigenous four-year-old children, but overall only 87 per cent of Indigenous children in the year before full-time schooling were enrolled in early childhood education. That is significantly short of the 95 per cent target set by COAG, so it is really important that we assist those jurisdictions who are simply not cutting it.

We all know that literacy and numeracy standards are stagnating across the entire Australian student population. Although the literacy and numeracy gaps remain, the numbers required to halve the gap are within reach. In 2016, if an additional 440 Indigenous year 3 students throughout Australia had achieved the national minimum standard in reading, we would have achieved the target. Again, it should be noted that both South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory actually achieved every single standard in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in reading, but the Northern Territory achieved none in both reading and numeracy. It is not only just saying that, broadly, we need to improve this; we also need to use the Closing the Gap report to ensure that we target resources and efforts at those jurisdictions that are failing. At the other end, in high school, the news is getting better. We are on track to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. But, just as a precautionary note, whilst the headline figures on this look good, I think you would not have to drill in too much to know that remote Australia is not doing anywhere near as well as metropolitan Australia.

The news gets better for those who go on to further education. With tertiary qualifications, Indigenous Australians have exactly the same employment outcomes as non-Indigenous Australians. In 1971, less than five per cent of working-age Indigenous men had a post-school qualification. By 2011, this proportion had risen to 31 per cent. It is still trending upwards for both men and women. In 2005, there were more than 8,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education award courses. Ten years later, there are more than 16,000—that is a 93 per cent increase, compared to a 47 per cent growth for all domestic students. We know the focus needs to shift from enrolments to lifting retention and completion rates. That is why we have focused our funding and our interventions on ensuring that people are not only enrolled but staying in there, investing $253-odd million in the Indigenous Student Success Program. I know this is going to ensure that we can translate those enrolments into completions, which should be the figure that we think is important.

The employment gap is another target where the short-term gains are not on target but where the long-term trend is heading in the right direction, and we are making inroads in all localities. Since September 2013, more than 47,000 jobs have been created for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians under employment programs in my portfolio. As I have indicated, that is about 60 jobs per day. The Community Development Program has accelerated progress in employment since July 2015, placing more than 12,000 jobseekers into jobs and outside of the CDP system.

Twelve months ago, the Prime Minister said that government has to focus on doing things with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That is a change from transactional government to enablement, from paying for services to linking funding with outcomes and from a one-size-fits-all mindset for program design to local solutions. Grants and national programs like the Community Development Program and the Remote School Attendance Strategy are driven by locals and by local needs. Our network of staff, many of whom are Indigenous themselves, are working with communities and organisations to develop these local solutions. The reforms to the Indigenous Advancement Strategy have enabled a far more strategic and flexible approach to the government's investment in Indigenous Affairs to achieve better outcomes on the ground while relieving the administrative burden and red tape for organisations servicing Indigenous communities. We have to work with stakeholders, listen to the views of those on the front line and make the changes necessary to get it right. We need to make those changes swiftly to ensure that the change can happen in the context of the information.

I seek leave to incorporate the remainder of my remarks.

Leave granted.

The remainder of the speech read as follows—

Recently, I announced $40 million over four years to strengthen the evaluation of Indigenous Affairs programmes.

This is the next step in our important IAS reforms and will allow us to better deliver what works — from the perspective of those receiving services, not providers.

Building on foundations (State and territory accountability and smarter targets)

Closing the Gap is everyone's responsibility and it was important COAG reaffirmed its commitment to Closing the Gap.

States and territories are continuing to identify opportunities to support Indigenous economic development on Indigenous-owned land.

They have agreed to work with the Commonwealth to improve their Indigenous procurement policies so that they mirror the success of the Coalition Government Indigenous Procurement Policy and those set for Indigenous employment and suppliers undertaking infrastructure projects.

And with some targets due to expire, we will have discussions about refreshing the Closing the Gap targets.

Each of the states and territories has recognised that it is not as simple as merely setting new targets and we would be remiss in our duty to get this right if all we did was pluck new figures out of the air because they sound ideal.

So we will work through COAG to consider whether the current breadth of targets adequately reflects the complexity of issues faced by Indigenous Australians.

We need smarter targets in the sense that they need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

We also recognise that, while the Commonwealth has powers under the constitution for Indigenous Affairs and we report these targets to the Federal Parliament, in reality, the states and territories are at the frontline of improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.

As we set new targets, we will improve accountability to ensure that we don't return to the mindset in which we set and forget.

Professor Chris Sarra, who is newly appointed to the Indigenous Advisory Council, said it best a few years ago when he said, 'For decades, Aboriginal people have signalled a dramatic sense of frustration about politicians who think that it's enough to throw money at a solution when we'd all prefer for them to sit down and do things with us, not to us, in the interest of making a difference.'

Today, together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we are working to ensure communities can be at the centre of the design of policies and the running of programmes.

I have to say I am looking forward to the challenge in this critical year ahead to build on what's working and change what's not.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present.

Nine years ago today, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rose in this place to right a great wrong and to deliver the long-overdue apology to the stolen generations. In the following February, to mark the anniversary of that address, Prime Minister Rudd delivered the first Closing the gap report to the national parliament, and it made very sobering reading. It was not a partisan report. It did not seek to ascribe blame to either Labor or Liberal, or any party. Instead, what it made clear was this: there has been no greater failure in public life in this nation than the failure of governments—both state and federal, Labor and Liberal—to ensure our First Australians enjoy the same quality of life as all other Australians.

And, so, it is right and proper that every single year in this place we are reminded of what we have achieved and we are reminded of where we have fallen short, and we are reminded of what is working and of where we need to do better—until we are no longer just closing the gap but until it has been eliminated, and until all the peoples of our first nations enjoy equality as with all those in our nation. Again, this year's report confirms we are falling short, with just one of the seven targets on track to be met.

The Closing the Gap targets emerged from the December 2007 COAG meeting, when first ministers agreed to close the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians by embracing seven key targets. Sadly, this year, nine years after this parliament received its first report on progress to achieving those targets, just one of seven Closing the Gap targets is now on track to be met—that is, halving the gap for the number of Indigenous students completing year 12 or its equivalent. Five of the remaining six other targets are not on track. These are: closing the gap in life expectancy by 2031; halving the gap in literacy and numeracy by 2018; closing the school attendance gap by 2018; and halving the unemployment gap in the same year. The seventh, which is a target of 95 per cent of Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025, shows mixed results nationwide.

It is not to say that there has been no progress or that we are going backwards. Whilst there is still much more to do, I think it is important to recognise the achievements, as well as our failures. Too often in this place there is a tendency to say that it is all too hard and that the disadvantage faced by our Indigenous Australians can never be overcome—that we should all just give up.

There can be few more important pointers to a nation's progress than its ability to prevent the avoidable death of a child. While the target to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018 is not on track, the Indigenous child mortality rate has declined by 33 per cent over the last 17 years. Overall, the total Indigenous mortality rate has declined by 15 per cent between 1998 and 2015. Eighty-seven per cent of all Indigenous children were enrolled in early childhood education in the year before full-time school, and the attendance rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is 83.4 per cent. Whilst the targets to halve the gaps in reading and numeracy are not on track, half of the eight areas for years 3, 5, 7 and 9 literacy and numeracy do show statistically significant improvements.

The one area of significant improvement is that the proportion of Indigenous 20- to 24-year-olds who have achieved Year 12 or equivalent increased from 45.4 per cent in 2008 to 61.5 per cent in 2014-15. And that was over a period where there was little change for the rest of the population. However, there has been a decline in Indigenous employment, with the Indigenous employment rate at 48.4 per cent, compared with 72.6 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. So the report card reads: some improvement, but a long way to go. It is a long way from even being given a pass. So the message, again, today is that we must try harder—much, much harder. But, above all, we must neither lose hope nor lessen our resolve.

Earlier today in the Labor caucus I was privileged to witness a welcoming ceremony conducted by Senator McCarthy and Linda Burney from the other place. I was also privileged to witness a deeply moving speech by Senator Pat Dodson. As leader of the Labor Party in the Senate, can I say what a privilege it is to serve with such extraordinary representatives of their community and of their people. Behind me is Senator Dodson, a man who has dedicated his life to reconciliation—to real reconciliation—between our peoples. I look forward to his contribution shortly. He gave a deeply moving speech. It was a speech that reminded us that nine years ago the Australian people exhibited and demonstrated an overwhelmingly positive response to the apology delivered by Mr Rudd. That was a heartening affirmation of the genuine desire of the Australian people to achieve genuine reconciliation.

Senator Dodson reminded us that, with the right political leadership, we could transcend the politics of fear and guilt towards a reconciliation based on truth telling, healing and justice—that wrongs can be righted. He also reminded us in the Labor Party of the impact that great Labor men and women have made in changing opinions and changing lives. Kim Beazley Senior brought the Yirrkala bark petition to the parliament in 1963 and helped pave the way to the 1967 referendum. There was the backing by the trade union movement for Vincent Lingiari's historic land rights struggle. A decade later, there was the tall stranger, Mr Gough Whitlam, pouring a handful of sand through Vincent's fingers, and the Racial Discrimination Act. Also, we had Bob Hawke's Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Paul Keating's nation-changing Redfern speech and his response on native title to the Mabo ruling, Kevin Rudd's national apology, and Julia Gillard's commencement of the constitutional recognition process. Today is a day of bipartisanship, but I do want to say these are achievements that make me proud to be a member of the Labor Party.

But I also share with all members and senators my sadness and my shame that so many of my fellow Australians, so many of our first peoples, continue to be denied their full place in this nation. Until a report is produced in this place confirming that all who live in this country have the same opportunities in education, the same access to health care, the same chance to see their grandchildren and their children grow up and thrive we must do everything we can in this place not only to close the gap, but to eliminate it once and for all.

I want to close with some of Pat Dodson's words. He reminded us today in the Labor caucus that as parliamentarians we consider challenges on a daily basis and we respond expeditiously. This is called political pragmatism. But, as he said, the new way forward cannot only be about pragmatics, it must shift to principle and honour. It is time for all of us to listen, to understand and to act, and it is time to make our word our bond.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make a contribution to the discussion on the Prime Minister's statement on closing the gap. I find it extremely upsetting to see that we continue to see a lack of progress on meeting most, if not nearly all, of the Closing the Gap targets. We have actually regressed on one of them from last year. It breaks my heart that that has occurred, particularly as it is the child mortality rate. While we have shared the successes that we have seen, as Dr Jackie Huggins said this morning in the Great Hall, unfortunately we are seeing more negative than positive.

That is deeply distressing, and it should be to this entire place. It means that we need to redouble our efforts. Falling behind on child mortality rates means that the failure to act in this space is actually costing lives. As we have heard, only one of the targets is on track and if we keep going the way we are going then we will not meet the targets of 2031 and we will not achieve the objective that so many have committed to and are so dedicated to. We have also gone backwards when it comes to some of Aboriginal children's reading and numeracy. Only year 9 numeracy is on track at this stage, which means that kids are getting poorer outcomes just as they are starting out in life.

I have witnessed all of the Closing the gap reports in the time that I have been a senator, since they first started getting made and delivered after the apology in this place. I find this one particular devastating, given that some of the poor outcomes are a result of some of the other things that have occurred, such as the taking of over half a billion dollars worth of funding out of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and the flawed implementation and the flawed process of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. I could go on, but it would probably take most of the time that I have left to speak.

This morning many of us witnessed Aboriginal organisations, led by the National Congress of Australia's First People, present to the Prime Minister; the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten; and Senator Di Natale, the leader of the Greens; a copy of the Redfern Statement. I might just pause here and seek leave to table the Redfern Statement, which I have discussed with both the government and the opposition.

Leave granted.

I saw them formally present that document to parliament and also, which is very important, their proposed engagement strategy for better engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Hence the statement that a number of people have made during the course of today, and in fact previously, that the government does not do things to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples but with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Redfern Statement was released during the election and essentially called the nation's attention to the lack of progress in closing the gap and what should be done. It was a call for action. It was produced by over 55 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations and peak bodies and it was led by the National Congress of Australia's First People. It is essentially a road map to guide the government and the parliament on how to better engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues and how to implement this statement on a continuing basis. The signatories are calling for a paradigm shift, and the statement, together with the engagement approach, provides the framework for this change. In the nine years since the Closing the Gap framework was set up, only half of the targets are currently even on track to be met, and we know that so far only one target has been met this year.

The Redfern Statement engagement approach for 2017, which we should all be supporting, calls for a new relationship with the government, one that includes increased engagement Australia's first peoples, so that the massive mistakes of programs like the flawed IAS approach are never repeated. The hope is that this will lead to better organised, co-designed and holistic policy and accountable implementation.

I call on the Prime Minister, and in fact the whole of this parliament, to agree to the engagement approach and ensure that a national enduring agreement or framework, as called for in the Redfern Statement and by the people presenting the Redfern Statement, is able to be produced prior to the 2018 budget and following their proposed national summit in September 2017. This agreement or framework will enable communities to drive their own development approaches based on their experiences, strengths and challenges.

I also call on the government to properly fund the National Congress of Australia's First People as well as other peak bodies. We heard so passionately this morning in the Great Hall how important are community based Aboriginal driven organisations, such as those addressing domestic violence, such as legal organisations, such as child care organisations. These organisations have suffered repeated cuts. It is time that stopped. It is time their vital work was funded.

Over the past 25 years there have been over 400 recommendations made to reduce the disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Most of those recommendations have not been implemented, have largely been ignored or have been only partially implemented. It is time that these recommendations were implemented. The growing incarceration rate for our first peoples is shameful and the lack of urgency on this is deeply concerning. I will repeat again, although it falls on deaf ears all the time, the calls for setting justice targets. I will not repeat the figures again, because we have heard them so many times before. What we need now is some action to address those targets.

The Prime Minister commented today that he would be doing things with Aboriginal communities not to Aboriginal communities, but not long after that he continued to comment about how successful the cashless welfare card and those forms of programs are. Those are programs that are being imposed on Aboriginal communities. They are causing great distress to a number of Aboriginal people in communities and, in fact, on a number of occasions they are causing great division. I visited Kununurra in December and talked to many people in the community on both sides of the discussion. I did not just talk to people who opposed the card; I talked to many people who supported the card too. There are a number of issues with it, and I do not have time to go into those now. The point here is it is causing deep division within communities. It is being imposed on many people.

What we need now is to get behind the very strong calls from Aboriginal organisations, Aboriginal communities and leaders in their field of expertise to implement The Redfern Statement, which is a comprehensive approach that addresses issues around incarceration, child care and domestic violence and also raises the issues with out-of-home care. I have spoken in this place many times about the appalling rate of Aboriginal children going into out-of-home care. Only when we address all those issues will we finally manage to close the gap.

In the short amount of time I have left I would like to raise again issues around sovereignty and treaty. If we are to achieve a fully reconciled nation we need to make sure that we are having a national conversation about sovereignty and treaties. The Greens will support those discussions and do what we can to participate in the debates on how we achieve sovereignty and treaties, recognising that we need to hold extensive consultation and extensive discussions around these issues.

Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Dodson, I understand that informal arrangements have been made for the clock to be set at 20 minutes.

Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nine years ago the apology and our commitment to closing the gap married the symbolic and the practical. After a tumultuous decade of denial under the long term of the Howard government Prime Minister Rudd's apology was cathartic. The positive response of the whole of the Australian public was heartening, affirming that with the right political leadership we could transcend the politics of fear and guilt as a nation and work towards reconciliation based on truth telling, healing and justice. Wrongs could be righted. Both initiatives in their own way related to the quest for change, transformation and fundamental equality. The effect of the apology was powerful whilst being symbolic. Prime Minister Rudd at the commencement of the 42nd Parliament pointed to a future:

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

As we look over the nearly 10 years of the Closing the gap report it is time to reflect on the past decade and ask: what has been achieved, are our Indigenous nations better off and where is our nation up to on the road to reconciliation, to social justice and to shared equality? We need to draw upon the inspiration provided by the courage, the spirit and the commitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders when we think of the national challenge of closing the gap. We also need to draw inspiration from the efforts of senators who have served here in the past and also members in the other place who have sought to make a difference to the disadvantages that persist in our communities. Both sides of the chamber have made meaningful contributions but so much more needs to be done.

Closing the gap remains a serious and difficult challenge for our Aboriginal nations and for our parliament. Today's report tabled by the Prime Minister is an accounting process and it seemed to me that the Prime Minister, to his credit, was willing to be transparent, to identify some of the major shortcomings, the disappointments in this ninth report and the smattering of occasional and partial success stories. For example, I am pleased to note that there is a positive consistent trend in the attainment of year 12 qualifications, though there are many disappointments.

I share his particular sadness and disappointment that infant mortality rates, which in previous years seemed to be improving, have from today's reports slipped back once more. Far too many mothers and fathers in our communities have suffered the awful, unspeakable loss of their young ones. We must increase our efforts to reach the target of halving the gap in infant mortality. I particularly note that rates of attending antenatal care in the important first trimester are highest in the outer regions but lowest in the major cities.

The health statistics are troubling. In particular I note the following hard facts, each of which has a story of pain and suffering behind it. Indigenous mortality rates from cancer are rising, and the gap is widening. The most recent Indigenous life expectancy figures were published in late 2013 and showed a gap of 10.6 years for males and 9.5 years for females. There has been no significant change in the Indigenous mortality rate between the 2006 baseline and 2015, nor in the gap since 1998. Cancer mortality rates are rising, and the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians from cancer is widening. The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is improving, but the current rate of progress will have to gather pace if the life expectancy target is to be met by 2031. We know that many promising beginnings in reversing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage have fallen short in delivering transformative, lasting change.

Given the recent history of defunding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, lasting change in the right direction seems unlikely. The overarching funding cuts of $500 million pointed out by the Audit Office, resulting from the amalgamation of different portfolio initiatives into the central agency of Prime Minister and Cabinet, have not helped the process of change. We know from the Audit Office review that the Indigenous Advancement Strategy is a shambolic failure of top-down centralised decision-making that leaves our Aboriginal nations on the margins as policy fringe dwellers, waiting for scraps from the big house. There have been documented funding cuts, very poor processes of consultation and negotiation, and weak evaluation of program progress. Even the recently announced evaluation investment is not new funding; it is taken directly from the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.

The gaps will not close across the board until attitudes at all levels are transformed in reality, not just in rhetoric. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been crying out for greater control, whether that be called empowerment, self-determination or, as referred to by the Prime Minister in his statement today, 'Do things with us, not to us.' A key question is whether 'do things with us' is really the approach that has been adopted by the bureaucrats of the department for which the minister and the Prime Minister are accountable.

The department has been focused on the laudable goals and objectives of the Closing the Gap agreements—initiatives such as getting kids to school, getting people to work, making communities safer, bridging the life expectancy gap. These have program funding, targets and protocols attached to them. However, the outcomes, as seen in this Closing the Gap report, are evidently disappointing.

These targets are really important. The public sector promises of change in both approach and regional engagement, however, have come packaged to the Indigenous nations without respect for their sovereign status, ignoring the commitment contained in the national apology that heralded respect in drafting, together, the next chapter of our relationship. The apology promised a partnership of equals. We are still confronted by persistent, deep matters of discrimination, racism and injustice that prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations from celebrating the nation-states' iconic and cherished treasures and from feeling that they can make it work in broader society. This affects the mindsets of people at all ends of the policy and program continuum, from policymakers to service organisations and even to the recipients of programs.

What we know is that there is a continuing gap in understanding significant matters to do with recognition of the sovereign status of the Indigenous nations: how this nation was settled without agreement, and to what extent will the original nations of this land be enabled to have their own voice within the deliberations of parliament on these matters that concern them greatly now and well into the future. Those matters include land, language, community, welfare, justice and service delivery, to name but a few.

Closing the gap into the future requires a commitment by all governments to engage in respectful dialogue to explore a way ahead to address these troubling statistical reports, and to negotiate an agreed way forward with the first nation peoples. This is at the heart of the Redfern Statement, tabled in here not so long ago, which was re-launched at the Closing the Gap breakfast this morning, which states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak representative organisations have a deep concern that 'the challenges confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be isolated to the margins of the national debate' and that 'the transformative opportunities for government action are yet to be grasped'. At the program delivery point, in the community health centres, the schools or the local councils, this would look like a commitment to co-design, and it is accepted across the Western world as the only way forward to address entrenched disadvantage.

Let me highlight some of the major features of the Closing the Gap report that gives me a troubling sense that there is insufficient engagement, consultation and negotiation by the government and the service providers. School attendance for 2016 is at 83.4 per cent, similar to 2015, while attendance rates for non-Indigenous students have been steady at 93.1 per cent. Have the parents of our schoolchildren been effectively engaged on this issue at the local community level? That is the question I ask. Do our children have the community models and rightful aspirations to see schooling as important and worthwhile? The target to halve the gap in reading and numeracy by 2018 is off track. The target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 is, in the words of the report 'not on track'. In 2014-15 the Indigenous employment rate was 48.4 per cent, compared with 72.6 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. In our remote communities, only 35.1 per cent were employed. As the Prime Minister said in launching the report:

We have come a long way since the referendum, but we have not come far enough.

Healing the injustices of the past needs a national dialogue to explore a settlement of these matters and to determine an agreed way forward with the First Nation peoples. Included in this dialogue is the necessary topic of restitution. In some states this is currently being contemplated, with redress schemes to cover compensation for victims of sexual abuse—and rightly so.

It is past the time to act on the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report and provide restitution to those still alive who were taken away from their families and from their descendants. The Closing the Gap report gives us cause to pause in order to note the marginal improvements and persistent failings. We need to be able in this place and in our communities to re-imagine the possibilities of transformation and positive change. This is not about the ethnicity of the Aboriginal people. This is about poverty. This is about the cultural dimension of the issues that we are discussing, because they are central and essential to the discussion. Our identity as Aboriginal and Islander peoples cannot just be put in a box and labelled as poverty, making us to be just any other poor or marginalised Australian. We are and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

We need to recognize that more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are cynical, frustrated and angry at the directions of public policy and the status quo treatment that government tends to give on matters that are of great consequence for them. We need new ways of thinking, talking and acting. We need to be freed from constantly leading you to understanding us. We need to be freed from explaining ourselves to you. We need to be freed to do the things that are important to us and which will still be important in decades to come. As the Leader of the Opposition in the other place said today in talking directly to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose lives are documented in this report: 'You belong to a tradition of sporting brilliance, in the face of racism from opponents, teammates, administrators and even spectators. You belong to humanity's oldest culture—more famous around the world than ever before. You do not belong in a jail cell for an offence that carries an $80 fine. You do not belong strapped in a chair with a hood on your head. Not dying in the back of a windowless van, away from your family. Not in some bureaucrat's office begging for money. Not on the streets with nowhere to go. You belong here, as members of this parliament, as leaders of this nation. Recognised in the Constitution, teaching in schools, building homes and caring for land. You belong here, growing up healthy, raising your children in safety, growing old with security. You belong here, strong in your culture and language and country. You belong here, equal in this great country, equal partners in our common endeavour. This is your place. Our future is your future—Australia's future.' I welcome this sad, distressing and disappointing report for once more bringing to this place our need to act.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this country, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and to thank the spirits of this place for giving us all the strength to be able to speak in such depth on an issue that our country wrestles with as black and white Australians. I would like to acknowledge in the gallery Jackie Huggins, Rod Little and Gary Oliver from Congress and to thank them and all those who were able to speak directly to the hearts of all political leaders this morning, here in Parliament House, on the latest Closing the Gap report.

I would also like to say to this Senate and to the parliament that this day is an extraordinary day and an important day because it brings directly to the forefront the issues that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For parliamentary leaders of all Australians, it brings to the forefront the importance that is placed on the fact that the lives of Australia's First Nation's people are still the most impoverished and disadvantaged. It is also incredibly important in the way that is extraordinary, because what we are wrestling with here is actually in this parliament. We are talking about a law that governs our country—but we are really talking about two laws. I am a Yanyuwa Garrwa woman, whose spiritual origins come from the sea country and I feel really good and strong, yes, and I give thanks.    I acknowledge the strength of my ancestors and the laws of the Yanyuwa Garrwa people in this house and respect the fact that I am on the awara, the country, of the traditional owners of this land. Those are the two laws that I live with and respect.

When we come to a day like this, when the parliament focuses specifically on first nations people, it fills me with great pride—deep pride—not just for the Yanyuwa Garrwa people and not just for the people of the Northern Territory but for our country, for all Australians. As much as this report does not hold good news, and as much as this report tells each and every one of you what we all live, it also tells the first nations people that this parliament, this law, does acknowledge a wrestling of our conscience in this country, a wrestling of our conscience that no political party has the answer to on its own. Every political party—the major parties—that has tried and continue to try, have all acknowledged here today the one thing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been saying consistently since time immemorial: 'Work with us. Not for us, not to us, not against us, but work with us.'

I would like to take you on a bit of a journey. In my way we call it the kujika, the songline or the storyline. Kujikas are really important and that is the law of the Yanyuwa. The kujika tells a story over thousands of years. It is not just one story; it is hundreds of stories. As I travel from Borroloola through to Darwin through to Tennant Creek then to Alice Springs and then here to Sydney that is a kujika. That is a story, because we are travelling and it is the songline. It is my songline.

I remember the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We know that one of the targets that is not in the Close the gap report is justice targets. In the lead up to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody there was one young woman—an outstanding woman, a young mum—who advocated strongly and who reminded this country that Aboriginal people were dying in custody at a rate that was such a phenomenon, on a tragic scale. She stood and faced media after media calling for something to be done. She was not alone but she stuck in my mind, because at the time I had started as a journalist and one of my first tasks was to cover was the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. I used to look at that woman, this Aboriginal woman with her young baby in tow, as she would face the media and I thought, 'Wow, thank goodness for people like you, because you inspire me and you give me hope.'

As I sat in the courts listening to the different stories as to why an Aboriginal man had died I would see my colleague Senator Dodson and many others. I covered the story when Elliott Johnston, the commissioner, was to release the recommendations. I share this story because, again, it is about the challenge of working in a mainstream environment. We want people to have jobs. But we are forever conscious that we are trying to balance, if you like, the many expectations on us from our own family and culture and kinship, and balancing the expectations of the broader Australian society.

The woman who inspired me throughout that process sits in the gallery today—Jackie Huggins, the woman who pushed and advocated for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, who today is still reminding the Australian parliament that you must work with Aboriginal people and who today does not give up on the fact that as imperfect as this parliamentary system is we still have to work at trying to get it right. Is Congress the answer? I certainly think it needs every bit of support to get there. Are there many other answers? Of course there are.

The other significant aspect of the kujika and the story that I would like also to share with you is the stolen generations. Yes: respect, recognise and restitution are absolutely critical in going forward in these next 12 months. In 2001 I covered another court case and that was the stolen generations court case in the Federal Court. When Lorna Cubillo and the late Mr Peter Gunner took the Commonwealth to court over their forced removal from their families. I covered that case. Throughout that whole case, which was carrying the weight of all the stolen generation people in the Northern Territory, they stood in that court and they shared the most intimate of brutal details that occurred to them while in the care of others under the Commonwealth. Yet everything hung on their case. Every member of the stolen generation from the Northern Territory, who needed that case to be won, was to be disappointed because they lost. They lost the case. But in the findings it was agreed that they did suffer sexual abuse.

I look at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today, and I ask, as a senator for the Northern Territory: why is it that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to tell their story again? What is wrong with our system of governance that it does not just pick up a report that has already been acknowledged by one court case or one commission and carry it over here to this court case or this commission, without putting the same people through extreme pain and trauma compounded on further pain and trauma? That is what we as political leaders now need to really examine: this system of governance, this law that fails at every step to give the justice, to give the satisfaction, to give the respect and to acknowledge that there are two laws here that are clashing.

We talk about resetting the engagement with first nations people. We actually have to start the engagement with first nations people. We have to acknowledge that there are many nations here in this country, and if we are to move towards constitutional recognition, which we so strongly believe we have to, there are many other things that must be discussed on that journey. Those things will be further discussed as people gather over the next few months.

I say to the first nations people of Australia: don't give up. This wrestling of the consciousness of this country and the conscience of this country can only find a way if we find it together. But it does need the wisdom of the spirits—the good spirits, the strong spirits, the positive spirits—from the Yolngu nation to the Larrakia nation to the Yanyuwa nation to the Arrernte nation to the Yorta Yorta mob, right across the east, again to the west and to the Palawa in Tasmania. Do not give up, you mob. Find your spirits, because when your spirit is strong it gives strength to the rest of us. It gives strength to the rest of us to find a better way. That wrestling of this country's conscience will continue, and so it should until we get it right.

I would like to just conclude by addressing the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. I want to say to him: we see what you do and what you try to do in your party room, with your cabinet colleagues and as you travel across Australia, and we know that you make many mistakes, but there is no doubting the strong intent behind what you do to improve the lives of the first nations people in this country, and I want to say thank you for that. I want to say to the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, and to the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull: when you can both stand and reach a higher point in politics for the betterment of first nations people in this country, it can only be much better for all Australians in this country.

That is why having Closing the Gap and this day as a critical conscience moment for this parliament will always be important, because we do lose way too many people too early, too soon, who are being jailed at rates that are outrageous for a country like ours. So, to all first nations people, I say: thank you. Let's stay strong. Let's keep going. To the parliamentarians of both houses: let's get this right, hey? Bauji barra.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and acknowledging their elders past and present. Let me also acknowledge that this is, was and always will be Aboriginal land.

I would like to acknowledge the wonderful contributions from Senator Dodson and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy for what were very powerful presentations. Let me also acknowledge the leaders of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, who are in the gallery today. Thank you so much for what was a very moving tribute this morning at the presentation of the Redfern Statement, which I will come to in a moment.

The tragic fact is that once again the government's figures in the ninth annual Closing the gap report have underlined our failures as a nation to move forward in any substantial way in Closing the Gap targets. We are still lagging behind on so many of those critical indicators—six of seven unchanged. We lag way behind on the life expectancy gap, on access to justice, on employment, on school attendance and on basic core measures such as child mortality and life expectancy. This report is another wake-up call to the nation.

Today we heard from the leaders of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples that Aboriginal people have the solutions, and we had the Redfern Statement presented to the Prime Minister this morning. The Redfern Statement is a statement that says we need a new approach. We need to redefine the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and government. The Redfern Statement is named after that powerful moment when Paul Keating made the self-evident yet controversial call to the nation that it was we who did the dispossessing—that this nation was founded on an act of theft, an act of dispossession.

It is important that we acknowledge that fact—that it is we, the non-Indigenous people, who have done the killing, the colonising, the discriminating and the dispossessing. That is not a black armband view of history. That is not guilt. That is justice, and that is what this is about. This is about achieving justice. It is so critical that we look at the Redfern Statement, take it seriously and recognise that the emphasis on self-determination, which is an undisputed right in international law, has never been afforded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in this country, and it is about time we did something to address that.

It is self-evident as to why we need to act. From the moment of the Redfern statement, we have seen report after report—the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report, the Bringing them home report, the State of reconciliation in Australia report and many more—highlighting the failures that reflect the fact that this country is yet to achieve justice when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who first introduced the annual Closing the gap statement, made a profound gesture when he made that apology in the parliament, and I was privileged to be there as an ordinary person in the crowd on the lawns of Parliament House. It was so moving and so powerful.

It was important that, for the first time, we put in place measures to judge how much progress we are making when it comes to closing the gap. Yet, as the former Prime Minister himself said only yesterday, he fears another stolen generation. We are seeing child removal rates continuing to increase, and we have seen a succession of government policy that is the antithesis to the statement that was made today to the Prime Minister—the paternalistic intervention into the Northern Territory.

We have seen the destruction of community development employment programs, we have seen the undermining of housing policies that assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we have seen half a billion dollars ripped out of Indigenous affairs under this government in the 2014 budget and, of course, we have seen the controversial Indigenous Advancement Strategy, where we are seeing so many Aboriginal people lose out to big government departments, again, with that heavy-handed paternalistic over-the-top response. Well, this is a wake-up call. We do not have the answers. It is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have the solutions.

It is tempting for us in this place to think we know best. As I said in my speech this morning, as a young medical graduate—a young GP—walking into an Aboriginal health service, I thought I knew it all. I had read books, I had done a course and I was going to go in there and help fix things. But if there is any one lesson I took out of that experience, it is that you must work with Aboriginal people, listen to their voices and their stories and understand that before you can do anything.

Last year I was privileged to attend the celebration, with the Gurindji people, of the famous Wave Hill strike. That was an act of defiance where the Gurindji people walked off the Wave Hill cattle station. They did so against the advice of governments, bureaucrats, policymakers and, indeed, the church. It was a sign that Aboriginal people told us loudly and clearly: we know best for us; don't tell us what to do. It was a significant moment. It was a moment that transformed not just the lives of the Gurindji but also the nation. It took much more hard work and years of advocacy before we saw Gough Whitlam pour the sand into the hands of Vincent Lingiari, which should have signalled the beginning of a new wave, but sadly here we are. There has been limited progress in achieving what is at the heart of the Closing the gap report: justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Prime Minister said last year, 'We need to be making change with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not to them,' and that is exactly what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders from across the nation are saying. People from health, justice, violence prevention, disability and children and family sectors are coming together in the Redfern Statementa statement supported by over 50 Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups across a wide variety of sectors. It is a plan for engagement with government. It is an ambitious plan, but it needs to be ambitious if we are to make progress, and I urge the government and the opposition to support the schedule—the detailed plans—laid out in the Redfern Statement and to recognise that, in doing so, they have the full support of the Australian Greens.

In the parliament, we Greens have had a longstanding commitment to collaboration and to respecting the knowledge and wisdom of Aboriginal people and an Aboriginal led approach. My colleague Senator Siewert here is someone who has, for more than a decade in this place, been a proud ally and friend of the many organisations who added their names this morning to the calls for a new way forward. We know what needs to be done. There are so many things that we can do at a practical level—for example, delivering culturally safe high-quality health care in the country.

Let's prioritise getting Aboriginal people the skills, training and experience so that they can contribute to the workforce. From administration to allied health, GPs and obstetricians, we need more Aboriginal people delivering health care. I know this because I have seen it up close. We know that these people are the role models for their communities and that they can demonstrate what is possible and what can be achieved and how people can give back to their communities.

I met Kelvin Kong today, an Aboriginal doctor and ear, nose and throat surgeon who understands just how important it is to give young kids opportunities early in life through appropriate interventions when it comes to ear health. When young children cannot hear, they cannot learn language skills. They cannot learn at school. They are behind the eight ball right from the very start. There are simple things that we can do to ensure that we close the gap.

In finishing, let me just say that this is an opportunity for a new way forward. It is my great hope that the government and the opposition—indeed, the entire parliament—will take up this challenge. Please note that the Greens will be with you every step of the way.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we have heard another series of closing-the-gap speeches much the same as we have heard in previous years—but saying something over and over again does not make it true. A myth we hear regularly is that, in the Prime Minister's words, 'Greater empowerment of local communities will deliver the shared outcomes we all desire.' Government interventions are now more locally managed for Aborigines than for other Australians, and have been for decades, but the outcomes are worse. The more dysfunctional a community, the less qualified they are to shape government policy and direct taxpayer funds. Why should we assume that the victims of violence know how government could help stop the beatings, that sick people know how to run health services or that people without jobs know how they can be helped into jobs?

Another myth is that we need to pay deep respect to Aboriginal elders and community leaders. Many Aborigines have pointed out to me that these people are self-appointed, unelected and do not speak for them. They have no track record of improving the lot of Aboriginal people. They have an interest in maintaining existing power relationships and townships, even if this is keeping people in squalor and dependency.

Guilt is clouding judgement in this place. Guilt means that opponents of work-for-the-dole schemes, like Labor and the Greens, do nothing to oppose a work-for-the-dole scheme if it is for Aborigines. This scheme is called the Community Development Program, and it exempts Aborigines in dysfunctional remote communities from the usual conditions for receiving the dole provided they remain in these violent, backward communities that are barren of opportunities. Guilt is clouding judgement such that many find it impossible to apportion any blame for high Aboriginal incarceration rates on the Aboriginal offenders. And guilt is clouding judgement such that Aboriginal children in abusive or neglectful situations are being kept there for longer and more often than non-Aboriginal children in abusive or neglectful situations. This guilt is not helping anyone, so let's get over it.

Captain Arthur Phillip came. Terrible things were done to some Aborigines who are now dead. Terrible things were done to the ancestors of other Australians too, like Chinese Australians, Armenian Australians and Jewish Australians. It does not help to treat any of these Australians like children. Let's stop telling lopsided stories about ancient Aboriginal culture without mentioning anything barbaric. Let's not double down on a racist Constitution by setting Aborigines apart from the rest of the nation. Let's stop racist policies that deliver extra handouts if a self-appointed elder declares you to be Aboriginal. Let's expect all Australians to obey the law and face punishment if they do not. And let's impose tough welfare obligations on all Australians. To paraphrase some QUT students who were ejected from a computer lab because of the colour of their skin, you do not stop racism with racism.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commence my remarks by acknowledging that we meet on the traditional lands of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I also wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the Bundjalung lands, because those are the lands that I grew up on.

I want to use my time today—and I will try to keep my remarks brief—to reflect a little bit on what it meant to grow up in a community where the Bundjalung Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people played a very active role. I do so to perhaps place some of the remarks from the former speaker in context, because my memories of the relationships I had with the Aboriginal community and Islander community in northern New South Wales are overwhelmingly positive. I acknowledge that a child's eyes are more innocent than most. As I have grown up I have come to understand that many of those people faced poverty, racism and hardship. But the experience I had was of an enormously resilient community, with all of the strength and capabilities to take charge of their own destinies.

I think about the role that those young people in my school played as team players. They were always the leaders in the sports teams or any team we put together. They were always people who took a frankly hopeless sportsperson—that was me!—under their wing and gave me encouragement and support even though my contribution to the team's outcomes was always fairly limited. But those people were always willing to take the lead.

Senator Urquhart interjecting—

I am told not to put myself down, but sometimes accuracy is important even in—

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Don't listen to interjections, Senator McAllister. Just proceed.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They were creative people. A number of the Indigenous students from my school went on to play very significant roles in our national cultural life. I think particularly of Daniel Browning, who attended my school and now plays a terrific role in broadcasting. I think about the fierce loyalty that that community had amongst family and about the fact that always Indigenous people are overrepresented when it comes to their family's willingness to come along to school events, to support their kids and to play a role in their kids' future. I think about their social leadership—that they are always willing to extend a generous word and a willingness to include any person in their conversations, their jokes and their social circle.

When I think about that community, I do not see the picture of despair or the story that Senator Leyonhjelm wished to tell. I see people who are capable of taking a role in their future, if only we will let them. I was thinking about all those things and all those people this morning at the remarkable ceremony in the Great Hall in support of the Redfern Statement. I wish to place on the record my thanks to congress for their generosity and their grace in inviting us into that room with them, telling their stories and once again explaining to us for our benefit how it is that we can work together to improve the circumstances that are reported in the Closing the gap report that was tabled today.

There is a very clear message they gave us: they said that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are ready to lead; they said that they have the answers, if we are ready to listen to them. I do think this is our great challenge as legislators and as policy makers. I have heard Senator Dodson say more than once today that empowerment, self-determination and doing things with us and not to us are the goals and reasonable asks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Of course, it is the same for communities all around the world. It is the demand of all people everywhere that they have a hand in their own destiny and that they lead in their own destiny. It would be enormously surprising if this was not the goal of the first peoples in Australia as well.

Too often in this place we have ignored the enormous potential of deep, meaningful partnership and, I am afraid in my limited engagement with the policy area since I became a senator, this is what I saw. In the IAS the thing that struck me most was the fact that the program did not acknowledge the significant impact of having Aboriginal leadership in service delivery could make to outcomes in Aboriginal communities.

I say that one of my commitments here is to support this most reasonable objective for empowerment, for self-determination, for doing things in real partnership—that is something I seek to do in the role that I have here. I want to conclude my remarks because they have largely been about leadership by acknowledging the leadership of my friends and colleagues, Senator Dodson and Senator McCarthy in this place—people I have very quickly become close to. I want to acknowledge also my friend in the other place, Linda Burney. They have chosen to lend their energy to our cause, to this place, and we owe it to them to return the favour.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to put some remarks on the record this evening as a response to the delivery of the ninth Closing the gap report in this country of ours, of which we are so proud in so many ways. I am certainly proud to have the opportunity to stand in this place and in our nation alongside Aboriginal brothers and sisters. But there is also shame that rests on us for the real life outcomes of the peoples of the first nation at this time.

I want to acknowledge, as Senator McAllister has done, on this particular day that we are gathering on the lands of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people. I too echo my pride in being a woman who lives and has lived for 32 years since the commencement of my married life on the land of the Darkinjung and Guringai people. I very much honour NAISDA, which is in the seat of Robertson on the land of the Darkinjung—the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association. It is the equivalent of NIDA, except that it is for Aboriginal culture. It enriches our local community in the most profound and wonderful way; it also enriches the communities which the young people come from and return to with their skill sets enhanced. These are the choice of my life in my interactions with Aboriginal culture.

I also want to acknowledge the teaching role and the passionate advocacy undertaken by my colleagues in this place, Senator Patrick Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, and Linda Burney—all of whom I call very good friends. I would also like to acknowledge, as was done in the House today, the historic role that is now held Mr Ken Wyatt, the member for Hasluck in Western Australia, and Senator Jacqui Lambie in this place. On this day I would also like to acknowledge Senator Nova Peris, who was a great friend and mentor to me in the time she was here in the parliament. One of the things she taught me was how important it was to continue to hold ourselves to account for what happens in this country.

It is my hope that this reporting day becomes an increasingly significant day for all Australians, from all walks of life of all ages from all parties, to continually test against our intention and our hopes what we are doing to achieve real life outcomes for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. We understand the concept of a report card—it is something that is a part of our lives. We understand that there are moments of accountability that help us to see clearly where we are and how far we are towards achieving the goals that we wanted to achieve.

I also want to acknowledge the support of Senator Scullion in making it possible for so many senators today to head over to the chamber to hear the report in person. I am happy that in this 45th Parliament there is an order with a continuing effect that enables us to go over and here live that very important report. It is so important that we tell the truth about what is going on. Today the truth telling is a continuing shame on us, a continuing shame on this nation for a failure to be wise enough, to be creative enough, to be brave enough and to be smart enough to find a way—a bipartisan way if we can—towards better outcomes for Australia's First Peoples.

The progress against the targets in the executive summary is a report card that you would have to consider a series of fails. The target to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018 is not on track this year—that is exactly what it says. The target to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031 is not on track, based on data since the 2006 baseline. You have to read target No. 3 quite carefully to figure out if we are on track or not on track because it does not clearly identify that we are actually failing our early childhood goals. It simply says that, in 2015, 87 per cent of all Indigenous children were enrolled in early childhood education compared with 98 per cent of their non-Indigenous counterparts. And right now there is legislation that this government is trying to push through the House that is going to have a devastatingly negative impact, particularly in rural and remote communities and particularly on Indigenous children who have at the moment some access to early childhood education.

The representatives of SNAICC have been all around this building. They have aired their advice. Their experience and their knowledge of their community have been shunned by ministers who have a chance in this government to ensure that young Aboriginal children actually get the access to early childhood education that they need. The decision making of governments one after the other to ignore those wise voices, particularly the wise voices of women in Indigenous communities, is going to cost all of those children, who will not be serviced. Some of these early childhood centres are tin sheds but those kids go there and they get a decent meal, they eat healthy food and there is support for their parents, for their mothers. That is happening. This government is about to take it away. The government has been told but there is a stuck. By arrogance, by historic precedent or by louder voices, it does not matter what it is by; the consequences are going to be devastating for those young people and this is what is happening time after time—not listening.

The fourth target: the new target to close the gap in school attendance by the end of 2018 is not on track. The fifth target: to halve the gap in reading and numeracy by 2018 is not on track. There is one tick. The means to target halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is on track. Thank God there is one thing that we have got some hope for, one thing that we have been able to maintain a commitment to. The sixth target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 is not on track.

So out of six tests that we set ourselves, we failed on five. I say 'we' because this is across governments. We cannot allow this to continue. We must continue to hold this day up to ourselves and we must suffer the shame of the report card of this year. We must also look at it as an opportunity to redouble our efforts to transform our understanding, to unstop our ears, to hear and to listen. We were told this morning by the gathering facilitated by the Congress at the Redfern Statementthis is the booklet—and the message was loud and clear. I was so glad to hear Aboriginal voices saying 'we have the solutions', demanding that we hear them here this morning. They are asking for some pretty clear things. I will read one: restoring over the forward estimates the $534 million, cut from the Indigenous affairs portfolio in the 2014 budget, to invest in priority areas outlined in this statement. That is a fact. That has happened under this government. That is a clear request.

How could a government take $534 million from Indigenous affairs and even expect that they were going to make closing the gap targets? This is either important to the governments of Australia or it is not. It is important to me and I am sure it is important to many Australians. Governments need to pay a lot more attention to what is going on in this area. The calls on the federal government here this morning I want to put on the record: commit to resourcing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led solutions; commit to better engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through their representative national peaks; recommit to closing the gap in this generation by and in partnership with COAG and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; secure national funding agreements between Commonwealth, states and territories like the former national partnership agreements, which emphasise accountability to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and drive the implementation of national strategies; commit to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders to establish a department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs in the future; and commit to addressing the unfinished business of reconciliation.

The calls of this document are very clear. There is a determination by Aboriginal people to have their voices heard to bring forward the solutions to the problems of their community, and I applaud the efforts in pulling that together. I hope that when I give a report next year we do not get five fails out of six categories.

Question agreed to.